This is the newsletter of Angela Grace Morgan, Publisher at Provender Press, part time letter-writer, and full-time book hoarder.
Hi, there.
You probably don’t know me. That’s okay, I don’t know you either. Maybe we can change that.
I am the Publisher at a teeny-tiny indie publishing house in the Willamette Valley of Oregon called Provender Press.
I get a lot of email.
Some of it is good. Some of it is great. Some of it makes me laugh, which is always a plus.
Some of it makes me want to throw the email across the room.1
Most of it has questions, and I really like helping people, so I try to answer everyone’s questions. My Dad had infinite patience for my 4,027,036 daily questions, and I honor him by answering as many as I ask.2
So, after a handful of years of being told by a raft of people that I should be on Substack, I decided to listen.
I will be answering questions (about publishing), musing on my thoughts (about publishing), and sharing my point of view (about publishing and books in general). There will be pointed opinions, well-intended advice, heartfelt encouragement, occasional navel-gazing, and probably-only-funny-to-me jokes.
If that sounds good to you, then you are in the right place.
Coming up (in theory, and not necessarily in this order):
How to Query Provender Press (It’s a Mad Lib)
I’m Not Looking at What You Think I Am
For Everyone Is Not a Target Audience (And What Is) (Alternate title: Why ‘For Everyone’ Makes Me Want to Throw Your Email Across the Room)
The Books I Want to Keep (And Why)
Author + Publisher: It’s Not a Transaction, It’s a Relationship (No Pressure)
What I Mean When I Say I Want to See a Treatment of Your Book
Why Finding a Publisher Is Like Dating to Marry (And So Is Finding an Author)
Why You Don’t Actually Want Your Publisher to Give Personal Feedback on Every Submission (Including Yours)
What You’re Actually Signing Up For When You Sign With a Publisher
Why I Care That You Care About Social Media
Why I Decided to Start a Publishing Company in the First Place
Why The Phrase ‘Inherently Noble, Precious, and True’ Is on Our Website
Or, maybe you have something else you’d rather get my thoughts on? A question (or five) you want answers to? Let me know.
One last thing. I can’t promise to know what any other publisher thinks about anything at all, but I can promise to tell you what I think. Maybe that will be helpful. I hope it will.
Welcome to Notes From the Inbox.
Angela Grace Morgan
Publisher, Provender Press
Many thanks to Valeria Reverdo and Unsplash for the photo.
We’ll come back to why I use the phrase, “throw the email across the room,” in another post.
Well, okay, I don’t really answer as many questions as I ask. I ask a LOT of questions. But I try.
Did I know you were here? I can't recall ... anyway, I found you. "I get a lot of email" reminded me of that time I wrote about writing letters ... here it is if you didn't see it:
https://renaissancewatch.substack.com/p/on-the-art-of-conversation-and-discourse